


We Are One

by SpaceStorm23



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Eventual Smut, Forest Deity Au, I promise, Lots of Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, but also cute stuff, for like 2 seconds probably, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-27 01:38:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8382853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceStorm23/pseuds/SpaceStorm23
Summary: Lance is the new forest deity but tends to have a wrong way of dealing with hunters. Shiro being the previous deity tries to show him a new path on how to change hunters minds on not to hunt. The first person that is going to be tested with this method is none other than Keith. Hopefully they can learn something from each other.





	1. Lost Boy

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys like this and hopefully i can keep up with this fic and not lose motivation. I don't have a BETA so i am doing this on my own so i apologize if the grammar is off or if something doesnt sound/read right. I'm going to try my best with this fic!  
> Also!  
> Shiro(previous deity): Bold  
> Pidge(fox): Underlined  
> Hunk(cub): Underlined and Italicized  
> \---  
> Ch.1 is gonna be boring but itll get better in the next chapter!  
> \----  
> I forgot to mention but each ch. title is also a song that i like and/or relates to the chapter! So give it a listen!  
> Lost Boy by Ruth B  
> \----  
> Support me on Ko-fi! https://ko-fi.com/A25317PX

Keith let out a sigh realizing it was another day back to work in the grueling sun and dry air, thankfully Fall was soon approaching. Slowly he got out of his broke down car and slammed the door shut hard since the door was slowly giving out. He let out a sigh like he always does when it comes to car. He made his way to the trunk of his car and opened it slowly, being able to hear the hinges creek open with every subtle move it made. Keith grabbed his camper bag and his rifle as well. He didn’t like what he had to do to get money in his pocket but this is all his dad taught him and he didn’t have enough money to go to college, it’s not like he wanted to have an office job. Hunting was one way to get quick money to pay off his bills and get food.

         He shut his trunk closed and slung the rifle over his shoulder and began trudging his way across the gravel parking lot to the small log cabin ahead of him. Pushing the door open with his shoulder, he looked around quickly to see if it was busy, to his liking it wasn’t just some guys drinking coffee. We walked up to the front desk and flashed his Hunting badge to the lady at the front to which she nodded and let him pass. Keith opened another door with his back and eyed the coffee table but shrugged it off as he stepped back outside.

         _Hmmm coffee sounds so good right now, but I’m already late._ Keith looked down at his watch, “So it’s 11am now, so I got 6 hours of good hunting time,” he said to himself and began walking into the dark forest.

         It took Keith awhile to get deep enough into the forest to start seeing more than just birds, squirrels, and raccoons. He knew that the bigger hits were bears, foxes, and any large fish. The forest was near a mountain but hunters usually stay away from the mountain base area from many reported deaths and strange sightings. Only a few survivors keep saying their is this monster in the forest, they call it The Forest Reaper.

         Keith continued walking deeper into the forest and began to listen to hear if any animals were near by. Its usually a hit or miss some days, it all depended on how lucky you were.

         Of course at least an hour passed by and still nothing interesting has showed up yet. Keith stopped in his track and put his bag and rifle down by a tree. He stretched his arms and shoulders a bit before sitting down next to his bag and pulling his water bottle out. Popping the lid open he took a quick sip and wiped the excess water off his lip with his sleeve. Shoving the water bottle back in bag he let out a sigh and wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his shirt. Leaning back on the tree he pulled out his phone and of course no message or notifications. Not like he had a social life or anything.

         He shoved his phone back in his pocket and let out a low grumble, sometimes forgetting he didn’t really have much of a friend group. He took in a deep breath and stood back, no point of sitting around not like the wildlife will come walking up to you or anything.

         Grabbing his bag and rifle he began his walk to find at least something in this huge forest. At least it wasn’t a horrible day in the least, the clouds began covering the sun so it wasn’t as grueling to be outside and the wind started to pick up a bit. Which was only annoying because his hair started to go all over the place. Keith grabbed a hair tie from his front pocket and put his hair up in a pony tail. He began looking around and tried listening for a near by stream, that was usually a good spot for hunting. Taking a few more steps the sound of rushing water was becoming prominent. With that Keith began making his way towards the noise.

         It didn’t take him long before he reached the stream which was a bit empty other than a few creatures drinking from the stream. Keith began walking alongside the stream and ignoring the bunnies and other small creatures that ran away from him. He kept quiet and tired to make his steps as quiet as he could make them, trying to listen for anything.

         A growl came from near by. _Was that my stomach?_ He thought while placing his hand over his stomach and thought about it for awhile. Another growl and it was a bit louder this time. _Nope, that definitely wasn’t me._ Keith came to the conclusion rather quickly. He crouched down and hid behind a near by bush and quietly but quickly got his rifle out and ready. The growl definitely sounded like a bear, but it wasn’t loud enough to be a fully grown bear so its probably a cub, so that means the mother should be near by.

         The bushes began to shake a bit and soon popped out a bear, still rather young, probably 3 feet high, so it was a cub. The cub made a low roar and suddenly the buses began to move again and came out a fox also a baby.

         _That’s weird, a fox and a bear? Together?_ Keith thought to himself. He shrugged it off and pointed his rifle towards the bear. If he did this correctly he could probably get the both of them.

         He began to ready himself and got into a balanced stance so he wouldn’t fall over when he took the shot. He tried not to make any noises during his movements. Keith took a deep breath and got closer to his rifle and closed one eye so it would be a clean shot.        

         Before he even took the shot the fox stopped and perked up their ears up and looked up. The fox looked back at the cub and squeaked at it. There would be no other time than now to take the shot before the cub would move.

 

_BANG_

 

         The bullet left the rifle but the cub moved and got shot in the back leg instead of the chest. _Fuck! Really!_ Keith groaned and reloaded his rifle and stood up quickly and pointed his gun at the cub. The cub was whimpering in pain and trying to run away by trying to hide in the bushes. The fox had something else in mind, it started growling at him. The fox growled more and started approaching the hunter. Keith kept looking back at the cub and the fox, which to shoot at first.

         Keith pointed his rifle at the fox which impressively didn’t scare the fox at all. The fox kept growling louder and began getting closer to Keith. The fox darted into the near by bush and began making his way quickly to Keith. _Fuck...fuck where did it go!_ Keith panicked a bit, foxes were hard to shoot at especially if they were angry. Foxes are fast creatures and once they start hiding it’s almost impossible to shoot them.

         He tried to stay calm and pointed his rifle at the bushes near him and tried to listen for any rustling. Keith stared at the buses and waited to see movement before he took another shot. It was quiet. Like really quiet.

         Keith swallowed hard and slowed his breathing to try and calm him down. Finally a rustling noise, it was subtle but nonetheless it was something. Unfortunately he wasn’t quick enough and the fox was already at Keith’s leg and bit him right on the ankle. “Fuck!” Keith shouted and tried to kick the fox but missed. The fox began to run away and started squeaking as he ran away.

         With that Keith grabbed his bag and began running after the fox and cub. The fox was just a decoy for the cub to get far enough ahead. _Stupid animals._ Keith was pissed to all hell. He continued to run after them and was able to close in on them since the cub couldn’t run all that much. The fox dove into a bush and popped its head out and squeaked at the cub which the cub soon managed to reach.

         _Found you, stupid animals._ Keith grinned and ran towards the bush. That was his first mistake. The bush was a cover to a huge slope which he undoubtedly tripped, fell, and hit some rocks and branches on the way down.

         It was a pretty deep slope. Rocks hitting his face and body, branches scratching up his arms and legs, and what stopped him was a stump to the gut. He started to cough up some blood as the hit to the gut was pretty hard. He tried to get up but failed miserably at that. He just fell back onto the stump and groaned lowly, feeling something trickle down his cheek and onto the floor. Glancing over he saw it was red. Blood. Placing his hand on his forehead he hissed in pain and looked back at his hand. Yup it was blood and a lot of it as well. He placed his hands on the stump and managed to roll over on his back and began to breath heavily. Looking over he saw his bag at the bottom of the slope and his rifle...actually no where to be found. “Gonna....gonna f-fucking die here....great..fucking great,” he coughed out.

         He heard some rustling and looked up to the same damn bush that led him to this hell. The fox and cub popped their heads out and stared at him. _Great now they get to have their revenge by watching me die._ Keith rolled his eyes and coughed some more blood up.

         Keith looked back at the sky and took a deep breath which was also a mistake. He felt himself becoming dizzy and losing sense of awareness. His eyes were starting to close slowly on there own. Yup this is it. Keith Kogane died in a forest by a fox and a cub.

         The sun hit his face which made his body warm and it felt really nice actually. He kinda wanted to take a nap right now. So that is what he did. Keith closed his eyes and let nature take its course.

         As he was falling into his sleep he heard some crunching noise. Probably the animals getting closer to him to see if he was dead yet. But soon the crunching of the leaves stopped and there was a voice. _Can animals talk? Maybe they can in heaven? Am i even gonna go to heaven is the real question._ Keith just ignored it and was actually to lazy to open his eyes again.

         The voice kept getting louder and soon he felt a hand on his face. It was so warm and soft but also a bit rough. It felt really nice and he kinda turned his head into the hand and went out like a light.

____________

 

         The fox and cub crawled out of the bush and looked over at the almost lifeless body. The fox starts making its way down the slope and notices the cub was following but looked back and squeaked at the cub to stay where they were. The cub whimpers a bit but listens to the fox and sits down at the top of the slope and watches the fox. The fox gets closer to the human and starts sniffing at it.

         “What do you have there Pidge?” a soft voice sounded and a dark figure started walking towards the body.

         The fox who was now named Pidge just looks up and squeaks at the voice. ‘Look I found a hunter! I think he is dead, which is good cause he hurt Hunk! Hunk got shot in the leg.’

         The new stranger looked up at the top of the slope and saw the cub who was named Hunk. Hunk was licking at his wound and continued to whimper. “Another hunter in my woods. When will they learn,” the stranger said with a low voice. The man kneeled down next to the hunter and looked him over.

         Pidge growled a bit and got closer to the stranger, ‘Be careful Lance! He might still be alive. He was rather persistent when he came chasing after us. So that is why i led him here cause I knew he would be dumb enough to follow us.’ Pidge looked up at Lance who was the stranger.

         Lance grinned a bit and placed his hand on Keiths cheek. He stiffened up a bit when the other moved into his hand. Lance stared at the hunter and saw the small smile on his face, with that Lance could feel his cheek burn up a bit. He quickly takes his hand back and looks over at Pidge. “Pidge...ummm go with Hunk back to the waterfall. I’ll treat with his wounds over there,” Lance said while glancing up at Hunk.

         ‘Okay...I’ll see you there then..’ Pidge was a bit hesitant to leave Lance alone but they had to take care of Hunk first. Pidge ran back up the slope and squeaked at Hunk. With that they both started their way back to the waterfall which wasn’t far away from where they were.

         Lance watched them leave and soon looked back at the hunter. He looked the other over again. _Multiple wounds, scratches, and blood loss. This boy will die out here...unless i help._ Lance groaned a bit and pinched the bridge of his nose. He stood up and looked around and found the backpack that he guessed belonged to the other. He opened the bag and looked around to find any information on the hunter. Lance found a small leather wallet. Opening it he looked around and found the Hunters Badge. “Keith Kogane....Keith..” he repeated while looking back at the other. Looking away quickly and back to the badge, “Keith, what a dumb name,” he chuckled.

         He continued to search the bag but only found bullets, water, food, clothes, and some other smaller necessities. Red bag? Lance pulled the small red bag out and opened it. _So he does have a first aid kit. Hmmm, smarter than the other hunters i have seen around here._ Lance shoved the red bag back into the backpack and stood back up while putting on the bag. Lance started walking up the slope and soon found what he was looking for. The rifle.

         Lance glared at the gun and his hands started to curl into fists. _These humans just think that this is a game?!_ Lance growled under his breath and picked the rifle and check if there were any bullets in gun. And yes there were. He dragged the gun across the leaves and walked back down to the hunter. He brought the gun up and placed it to Keith's forehead. Lance placed his finger on the trigger and was about to finish the deed but soon felt something near him. “Who is there?” he said while looking around.

         The wind started to pick up a bit like in a swirling motion which made Lance back away from Keith and drop the rifle on the floor. **“Lance for the last time, why do you have to do this every time you come across a hunter?”** a deep voice sounded through the wind.

         Lance looked around and soon found the origins of the voice and soon pouted. Looking away he crossed his arms and huffed. “Shiro...you aren’t the deity anymore. This is how I handle the hunters around here. You made your choices and I’ll make mine so don’t try to change me now,” Lance said while looking at the previous forest deity.

         Shiro was the last deity and died many years ago, so what is Lance talking to? Shiro’s spirit is only visible to the new forest deity. Only the last forest deity can be seen as a way to help the new forest deity with decisions and understand their purpose in life.

         **“I know this is how you handle things Lance, but why not give this one a chance? Just try to change his mind on things. Try to show him something new, I know you can do it. I helped every hunter I came across and they all stopped hunting in the forest. Unlike you, you are the hunter. A deity is supposed to protect not enforce fear,”** Shiro was getting a bit irritated now since he keeps saying the same thing every time.

         Lance rolled his eyes at what Shiro was saying and let him ramble on. “Shiro I know you want me to be like you, but that is never going to happen. What if I spare this joke of a human, then what? I teach him the ways of the forest like some kind of fairytale?”

         **“Well...technically..”**

         “Actually don’t answer that...” Lance groaned. “There is no point in sparing his life, even if I show him ‘The ways of the forest’ he probably won’t change at all,” he added on.

         **“I know its hard to believe Lance, but just give this guy a shot. If it doesn’t work out then you can go back to how you dealt with things before. Deal?”**

         Even though Shiro was a spirit and you can see almost right through him and he can’t physically do anything to you, there was just something about him that made you cave. Letting out a loud groan, Lance ran his fingers through his hair and glared at the spirit, “Fine...Fine! I’ll teach this human what it’s like to be a fairy,” he hissed. “Now leave me alone...I promise I won’t kill him,” he paused, “unless he pisses me off then off he goes” he mumbled the last part with a grin.

         **“What was that last part?”** Shiro glared at Lance.

         “What? Oh no, it was nothing~ Like I said Shiro nothing will happen to this boy’s mullet...” Lance pointed at the body on the floor. “Honestly who has a mullet now days,” Lance said while crouching down next to Keith.

         **“I trust you Lance, I know it will be good for you,”** Shiro smiled. **“If you ever need any help you know how to reach me, okay,”** and with those last words the wind picked up again and he was gone.

         Lance just stared at Keith, _this is going to be a long day_. Lance first grabbed the rifle that was next to him and slung it over his shoulder. Then he shimmed his hands underneath Keith, one around his upper back and the other behind his knees. He stood up easily and looked down at Keith who was still knocked out. “Better not give me hell,” he said and began trudging up the slope and to the waterfall.

         On his way to the waterfall he noticed some animals watching him and a bit confused. All the animals in the forest knew Lance killed hunters on the spot which they were grateful for. But seeing Lance holding a human who was still alive was a rather different sight. “Blame Shiro, so stop looking at me,” he pouted and continued to march on.

         It didn’t take long before he reached the waterfall area. It was a vast area with hardly any trees just grass and a huge pond for the equally giant waterfall.

         Lance noticed Pidge and Hunk were already waiting for him. Pidge perked up first and looked back but soon growled. ‘Why did you bring the human? Hunters aren’t supposed to be on these grounds.’ the fox continued to growl but it was less aggressive than before.

         “I know Pidge...trust me I know...” Lance said while placing Keith down in the soft grass near the pond. “Look I was about to kill him but then Shiro comes in out of no where and nags me to keep him alive,” he let out a huff and sat down next to Keith. “So he is going to be our guest...for...wait is he staying with me?!” Lance shrieked a bit. “Ughh, Shiro didn’t tell me about the details for this...I would always tune out Shiro when he talked about how he saved hunters and changed their minds,” Lance paused and thought a bit. “Look I’ll heal him up and just tell him how to get back to where he needs to go.”

         Pidge shook his head which made his ears flop around a bit. ‘Well I was able to clean out some of Hunks wound it doesn’t look that bad, the bullet grazed him I think.’ Pidge looks over at Hunk who was still sitting in the shallow part of the pond.

         Lance looks over at the cub and lets out a sigh, “Let me at least cover his wounds first so he stops bleeding,” he said and began to take off Keiths jacket. He grabbed the others bag as well and pulled out the first aid kit. “Pidge do you think you can go to the cave and bring that silver canister that I always put water in?” he asked while looking back at the fox.

         Pidge nodded and started to run off towards the waterfall. Behind the waterfall was a cave which is where the three of them stayed. Lance had a stock pile of backpacks since hunters would either leave them behind or they just weren’t alive anymore.

         Searching through the bag he found a small towel and dipped it into the pond and began wiping away at Keiths face to get the dry blood and dirt off of him. “What an idiot...” he mumbled while finishing up cleaning up the others face. “This is going to be a pain...” he added on and started to take off Keiths shirt and folded it up and placed it under Keith’s head as a make shift pillow.

         That’s when Lance held his breath and bit his lip. Usually hunters weren’t that appealing to look at but Keith was something different. Slightly tanned, with toned barely showing abs but just enough to have a nice V. He swallowed hard and placed the damp towel on his chest and his other hand on his stomach. Slowly starting to wipe off the dry blood and dirt from his chest. _God, not gonna lie but thank you Shiro for picking this one. I will never admit it though._ Lance thought while zoning out and just staring at Keith’s face.

         ‘I’m back with the canister....Uhh what are you doing?’ Pidge squeaked which made Lance scream in pure terror.

         Lance quickly snapped out of it and backed away from Keith and looked over at Pidge. “I was just cleaning his wounds! You know like the good deity I am!” Lance tried to say calmly but his voice cracked a bit. He looked away from Pidge quickly and straightened himself out. Grabbing the canister from the foxes mouth, he opened the lid and put it in the pond to fill it up with water. Once it was full he placed the canister next to Keith.

         ‘So you gonna take off his pants?’ Pidge said and even though they were a fox you could tell that they were grinning. Pidge caught onto things rather quickly and would make fun of Lance but Pidge was still loyal to Lance and would protect him.

         _‘Yeah you were staring at him really intently Lance,’_ Hunk looked at Lance while limping over to them in the shallow part of the pond. _‘You were pretty immerse while you were cleaning him,’_ he stated the obvious.

         The fox started laughing and went over to Hunk, ‘Thank you for telling me this Hunk, now I can tease him about this instead of the time he tripped and he face planted right into-’

         “Stop!!! I hate the both of you...mostly Pidge, I still like you Hunk,” Lance rolled his eyes. “Look let me just finish this so I can take care of you Hunk” he grumbled and turned back to Keith.

         Lance went back to having his full attention on Keith, once he finished cleaning his upper body then he began to wrap up his wounds with the bandages he found in the first aid kit. Getting closer to Keith he carefully lifted his head up and placed his head on his lap and began pouring the water from the canister over his head to wash away the rest of the dirt. Lance noticed his hair was tied up and slowly began to take the hair tie off. _Who the fuck has this hairstyle?_ He shook his head and continued to wash his hair and head. Once he finished and dried him off a bit he started to wrap the bandages around his forehead. Lance looked down at Keith and brushed his hair out of his face. Slowly grazing his finger tips over his soft lips. The deity bit his lip and blushed lightly wondering if he should heal Keith the correct way, he was pretty banged up.

         The fox slowly made its way to Lance and looked up at him, ‘Are you gonna heal him? You probably should, he won’t survive with natural healing...he lost to much blood as it is,’ Pidge looked a bit concerned while looking at Keith.

         _‘Heal him Lance...’_ Hunk looked up at the sky. _‘For some reason I get this feeling from the forest that this Keith guy is good...I think Allura likes him,’_ the cub looked over at Lance and Pidge. Hunk was always close to the forest and would talk to Allura, who was the spirit of the forest, sometimes but he mostly got these strange feelings.

         Lance looked over at Hunk and gave a small smile and nodded, “Okay you two, I’ll heal him,” he let out a chuckle. He placed Keiths head back down on the makeshift pillow. Taking a deep breath Lance closed his eyes and clasp his hands together. As the forest deity Lance has blue lines and markings all over his body. Blue lines going down his arms, legs, and one going down his bottom lip. He also had a design on his back and two little triangles under his eyes. His blue markings began to glow and he opened his eyes slowly as his blue eyes were also glowing. He leans down and cups Keith’s cheeks with his hands. Lance stared at Keith one last time and felt his cheeks warm up a bit. He took a shaky breath and pressed his lips against Keith’s lips, feelings his cheek warm up even more. _Warm. Soft. I don’t want to stop. I hate this so much._ After a few more seconds Lance broke away from the kiss. He stared at Keith again and let out a shaky sigh and he sat back up. “Okay...I did it,” he mumbled and glanced over at the cub and fox. He dug around the others backpack and found a blanket and placed it over Keith. Slowly he got up and walked over to Hunk and placed his bare feet in the water and sat down next to Hunk.

         “Now to check up on you little guy,” Lance said while picking Hunk up and placing him in his lap.

         Hunk whined a bit and shoved his face in Lance’s chest. ‘ _Is it going to hurt a lot?’_ he looked up at the other.

         ‘Yeah its going to hurt so much. The most unbearable pain you will ever feel in your life!’ Pidge started to bounce up and down and chuckled.

         Lance rolled his eyes and pushed the fox away, “Do not listen to Pidge you know they over exaggerate about everything. I promise you that it won’t hurt a lot okay,” he said while petting the cub gently. “Thankfully the wound isn’t that bad,” he said while 2 at the back paw. “Ill just cover up the wound and everyday we will have to wash it till it heals okay,” he added on and began washing the wound which made the cub flinch a bit in his arms. Once Lance finished cleaning the wound he wrapped up the back paw with some of the left over bandages and placed Hunk on the ground and petted his head. “Now you be careful for the next few days, okay?”

         Hunk nodded and sat down next to the fox _‘Don’t worry I’ll be careful! So what about him? I think we should get some food before he wakes up, not like I’m hungry or anything.’_ Hunk titled his head and glanced at Pidge.

         Lance looked back at Keith and nodded, “We will have to wait a bit before he wakes up. My healing powers don’t work as fast as Shiro’s but its better than nothing; lets give him an hour or two,” he mumbled with a frown. Lance shook his head a bit and looked back over at Pidge and Hunk and smiled at them, “but yeah we should probably get some food and a fire going as well.”

         ‘If anyone wants my opinion on what we should have for dinner, I think we should have fish!’ the fox began jumping around. ‘I can start getting some if you want me too’ Pidge looked over at Lance while entering the pond.

         Lance thought a bit and nodded, “I think that will be good, we don’t have to leave either since there should be enough fish in the pond,” he said. “You can start looking for fish if you want and I will get started on the fire,” he added on. “Hunk, keep watch of Keith and tell me when he wakes up okay,” Lance looked over at the cub and stood up to start looking for fallen branches in the near by trees.

         Hunk nodded and slowly made his way closer to Keith and looked at him. _I know there is something special about you...please bring Lance back to normal._


	2. Can't Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk is a very wise cub and just wants to live a peaceful life.  
> Lance and Keith don't see eye to eye but they can work on that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Can't Sleep by: K Flay
> 
> Hunk: underlined and italicized   
> Pidge: underlined
> 
> PS: i will be updating Ch1 soon since i got a beta recently

Almost two hours passed by since Lance had found Keith and healed him. Keith was definitely taking his sweet ass time on recovering, while the others were getting ready for the night. The sun was still shining bright, but was slowly descending behind the mountain. One of the few remaining sunrays shone on Keith’s face, making him a bit restless in his sleep. Keith tried to roll over on his side to get away from the light but felt pain surge throughout his entire body. Letting out a groan he opened his eyes and tried to place his hand on his stomach. In the process of going into fetal position he caught sight of a cub staring right at him. Holding his breath, he kept staring at the cub and tried to assess the situation.

The cub perked up when he saw Keith start moving around and looked back and let out a quiet roar. Keith watched the cub get up and start limping a few feet away from him and still letting out quiet noises.

_ Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Is he calling his mom? Fuck. _ Keith looked around quickly while the cub was walking away from him. He was slightly caught off guard when there was a blanket on him. Taking the blanket off, he noticed that he was wrapped up in bandages as well. Sitting up slowly, wincing in slight pain, he was finally able to understand where he was. This wasn’t the same place where he was knocked out.

“So you are awake,” a voice sounded from behind some trees.

Keith looked around and tried to pinpoint where the voice was coming from.  “Who’s there?” he asked with a hesitant voice.

A few seconds of silence passed, and a tan man emerged from behind the trees. He was only wearing tattered pants but honestly Keith didn’t mind. The tan man had a nice figure, tall and lean. With tattoos of some sort? There were so many blue lines on his body, the one on his bottom lip is the one that caught his eye though, which honestly just emphasized how amazing he looked. Keith just couldn’t stop staring at him and just lost his thought process.

Lance raised his eyebrow and smirked while striding his away over to Keith. Once he was almost a foot away from the other he crouched down and looked down at him. “Did I take your breath away? I know, I am so breathtakingly beautiful and I even saved your pathetic life,” the man hummed with a grin.

Keith bit his lip at the cockiness of the stranger; he was definitely taking back everything he thought about the other. “What do you want from me?” those were the only words he could think of saying.

“Me. Want something from you? Listen here mullet man, there is nothing that I want from you.”

Keith swallowed hard, and he wasn’t going to lie, he felt slightly intimidated by this man, even if he was hot.

“Keith Kogane was the name right?”

Keith was baffled at what the stranger knew. “How do you know my name?” he asked hesitantly while gripping onto the blanket.

“Because I know everything that surrounds you,” he said with a grin.

Keith held his breath, terrified at what was going on. How does a guy he never met know everything about him already? He soon looked up when the other began to laugh. “What’s so funny?” Keith said trying to calm himself.

Lance tried to stop laughing at how terrified that other was and shook his head. “You are gullible aren’t you,” he stated.

Keith watched the other reach behind his back and stiffened up not knowing what he was going to reveal to him. A small leather bag was thrown at him. It was his wallet. Grabbing the wallet that was thrown onto his lap, he opened the wallet slowly and saw that his Hunting Badge was kind of out of place.

“Your wallet was big help on understanding what you are and what you do,” Lance said the last part differently.  “My name is Lance…and you are in my forest.”

Keith looked up at the now named stranger and began pushing the blanket off him. “What do you mean by your forest? What are you?” he questioned while trying to straighten up a bit.

The deity sat down, still about a foot or so away from the other, and glanced at him. “I am the forest deity, so by definition, I protect the forest and everything that lives in it,” he paused. “From the looks of it, you were hunting down my friends a few hours ago,” he added on while pointing at the fox and cub that were near by. “I don’t appreciate that,” he stops and gets up from where he was sitting and closes the space between him and the other. 

 

Lance was standing in front of Keith and leaned down to grab him by his arm and lift him up to his feet, staring intensely at him. “I don’t appreciate what you do to get some extra money in your pocket. Thinking you have all the right just because you believe you are higher up on the food chain. Killing the ones that I love! So tell me, why shouldn’t I  just kill you right now?” Lance shouted at the other.

Keith winced a bit at how hard Lance was grabbing his wounded arm. Once the other stopped talking, Keith swallowed hard and met with his eyes. He soon found his stability and his mind was slightly cleared, trying to understand what was happening.  _ Wait. Didn’t he save me? He could have just let me die back there. Why did he bring me here and heal me?  _ Keith bit his lip and took in a deep breath, “Then why didn’t you just let me die back there! Why did you bring me here and patch me up? You had the opportunity, so why didn’t you take it? Are you trying to scare me and then kill me?” Keith huffed a bit and continued to stare right into Lance’s eyes.

Lance kept silent and continued to stare at him for a bit longer. It was quiet until the cub came limping up to them and let out a soft growl. Lance glanced down at the cub and soon let go of Keith. “At least you have guts,” he said while looking away.

Looking at the cub and then back at the other, Keith took a deep breath to calm down. “Why didn’t you leave me for dead?”

“I’ll explain later,” he paused and began walking away, “first you need food and more rest.”

Keith watched Lance walk away and towards a small fire that the fox was sitting next to. He reluctantly began to follow the other man but was still rather weary of what was happening. He made his way to the small fire and sat down on the opposite side of Lance, and stayed quiet. 

He watched as the cub and fox sat on either side of the deity and gazed back towards Keith.

“Now guys don’t be rude to our guest. Pidge, don’t you dare do anything,” Lance squinted at the fox.

The fox wagged its tail a bit and nuzzled his head on Lance’s leg.

_ Wait…can he actually talk to them? Or is he crazy? _

“Do they actually respond to you? Like do they understand you?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah, the fox is Pidge, and the cub is Hunk. I am the only one who understands them and they understand me, so what you hear as a growl or other type of noise, I hear it as actual words.”

_ Yup. Crazy.  _ “Whatever you say,” Keith said with a sarcastic tone.

Lance rolled his eyes, “You hunters don’t know anything, do you?”

Pidge trotted over to a little basket that was nearby and bit onto a fish and dragged it out and placed it on Lance’s lap. The fox went back to the basket again and grabbed another fish and started to drag it towards to Keith.

Keith was a bit surprised that the fox was strangely nice, even though he remembered what Lance said specifically to the fox just a few minutes ago. Keith leaned over a bit and extended his hand out to grab the fish, but it was out of his reach when the fox pulled it back.  _ Does it still not trust me? _ He squinted a bit and leaned over a bit more to try and get the fish, but Pidge jumped back suddenly, taking the fish with him. Even though Pidge was a fox, you could tell that he was mocking Keith, his eyes glinting with mischievous laughter.

“Pidge!” Lance grabbed Pidge by the back of his neck and lifted him up. “Why are you always a pain?” he let out a sigh. “Give it to me!” he demanded while putting his other hand out so the fox can drop the fish in his hand.

Pidge whined a bit, and soon let go of the fish with a pout, looking away in defeat.

Rolling his eyes, Lance put Pidge back down next to him. Lance looked over at Keith and handed him the fish, “Sorry about that, Pidge has a grudge against you,” he said. Lance then gave a fish to Pidge and Hunk and let them start eating. “Here,” he started and gave Keith a stick.

Keith stayed silent and grabbed the stick, he pierced the fish with the stick and then let the fish hover over the open flames. Lance had done the same thing as well.

 

It was a rather long awkward silence; all you could hear was the fox and cub eating their meal. Keith kept looking around and tried not to look over at Lance, because he could feel the other man staring at him.

Giving a weary cough, Keith glanced over at his fish, mostly wanting to look at Lance, but he didn’t want to burn his food. 

“So why didn’t you kill me then?”

 

Lance snapped out of it, and looked down at his fish, slowly twirling his stick. Letting out a sigh, he brought the still almost raw fish to his mouth and blew on it to cool it down. “I didn’t kill you because I promised Shiro I wouldn’t. Shiro was the last deity that protected this forest. He doesn’t like how I deal with hunters around here. As you may have noticed, hunters are dying left and right around here, and your answer for all of that is right in front of you,” he said, and took a bite out of the fish. “Shiro would always teach hunters about the way of the forest or whatever it is. He told me to let you live and do his teaching methods, and if it didn’t work out I can go back to my ways,” he shrugged. “So thank Shiro that you are still alive right now,” Lance took another bite.

Keith looked back down at his fish and kept turning it over and checking it every so often. “So, you are going to teach me the ways of the forest and change my mind on not hunting anymore?” he questioned. “What if I don’t want to? Can’t I just leave?” he added on and took the fish out of the fire. He let it cool down a bit before taking his first bite.

“I mean yeah, by all means please make my life easier and leave right now,” Lance paused and quickly finished off the fish and placed the bones to the side. “But if I do ever find you again in my forest I will kill you,” he glared back at the other. “So what do you want?”

Keith knew he was still in no shape to leave right now and get back to town, or even try to run away from Lance. Letting out a sigh he nodded weakly, “I guess…I mean I don’t trust you or anything. Still kind of weary of everything that is happening.”

“Well it’s not a no, but it’s something,” Lance grinned while leaning back on his hands. “I might need to spice some things up, just for you.”

Keith stiffened up and slowly started chewing on his fish, looking away from Lance quickly. Calming down a bit, Keith glanced at Lance and felt his cheeks warm up. The sun hitting Lance’s half clothed body, his blue lines even more prominent than before, but his god-awful grin was what got him the most. Keith soon enough finished the fish and placed the remains to the side as well.

Lance stood up quickly and looked over at the fox. “Pidge, clean up, and Hunk can you take the basket back to the cave,” he said while looking down at them.

Pidge nodded and soon picked up the bones of the fish with his mouth and started to dig holes into the ground and began to bury them. Hunk grabbed the basket with his teeth and slowly made his way to the cave, which he did have some difficulty, as the basket would get caught on some things.

Lance grabbed the silver canister and filled it with water and went back over to the small fire and began to put it out.

Keith stayed quiet and started to look over his wounds to see how he was recovering. He noticed he wasn’t as in much pain as he was when he woke up about an hour ago. He started removing some of the bandages on his arms and saw that the wounds were all closed up, and were almost completely healed, just minor bruising. Placing his hand on his forehead, he didn’t wince; the pain was gone there as well. Removing the bandages from there too, he quickly passed his hands through his hair and saw that he wasn’t bleeding.

“Is the pain all gone?” Lance chimed in and glanced over at Keith.

“Yeah almost all the pain is gone now,” he paused for a moment, “What did you do?” he added on and looked over at the other.

Lance stiffened up a bit and looked down at Keith. “Just forest magic…” he said with a shrug.

The fox came from around Keith and it looked like as if they were grinning at them. Pidge soon stuck their tongue out and placed their front paws on Keith’s leg.

“Pidge!” Lance shrieked and quickly went over to the fox and picked him up. “Don’t pay attention to them,” he laughed nervously.

Keith blinked a bit at how Lance reacted, it’s not like he could talk to animals or whatever. While Lance was trying to keep Pidge at bay, Keith thought a bit at what the fox meant. _Tongue?_ _What does that even mean? Did he lick me!_

“WAIT! WHAT! YOU LICKED MY WOUNDS!!” Keith screamed in pure panic and disgust. He scrambled to his feet and stared at Lance and waited for an answer.

Lance looked back at Keith and furrowed his brows in confusion by all the screaming. “What? Why the hell would I lick you! That is disgusting, I don’t know where you have been!” he stated. “Pidge, this is why Hunk is the favorite…” he let out a sigh and placed the fox back down on the ground. “What Pidge meant to say is that, I kissed you. That is how I heal others, but my healing powers aren’t as good as Shiro’s, so that is why it took a bit longer for you to wake up,” Lance finally said.

Keith placed his fingers on his own lips and scrunched up his nose a bit, “Never do that again,” he replied back.

Lance raised an eyebrow at how Keith reacted, “I don’t even get a ‘thank you’ for saving your life?”

“I don’t think I asked for your help! Should have just left me there. I don’t even know you and you are trying to put things in my head.”

“Wow, well aren’t you peachy this fine afternoon. Maybe I SHOULD have left you there then!”

Pidge glanced at the both of them, lowering their ears, and began to back away from the fight.

 

Keith gritted his teeth when Lance raised his voice at him. “Look I don’t need any of this freaky shit going on, okay? A ‘deity’ living in the forest, who can talk to animals and kills hunters for fun? What the fuck is that? I’m just trying to live a normal life, I’m trying to get by. How do I even know that you are trying to ‘save’ me or ‘change’ me or whatever you are trying to do? Why should I even trust you when the other hunters around here call you ‘The Forest Reaper’?”

“I do not kill hunters for fun, they are intruding on my land and are hunting creatures weaker than them,” Lance said. “Yup, this is all a dream to you! So why don’t you turn around and leave my forest and never come back?” Lance snarled. “If you do come back I will kill you,” Lance glared at Keith.

Keith threw his arms up in the air, “Well you should have done that then instead of ‘saving me’, I do not need any help,” Keith huffed a bit. He turned around and began walking away, stopping for only a second.

 

“I wish I killed your so called friends.”

 

Lance snarled again, and curled his hands up into fists, “Fuck off! Thinking you pathetic humans are at the top of the food chain!” Lance was livid. He shot a challenging glare at the other as he stormed off.

Keith had had it. He wasn’t trying to fight this forest-fucking-deity-or-whatever, his wounds had healed enough to take him out of range of Lance’s preaching. Well. Probably enough. 

With one last irritated huff, Keith soon disappeared into the trees, and started to blindly make his way back to an area that he was familiar with. 

_ Ugh. Fucking lost my gun, my bag, and my wallet. Fuck that guy. This is so stupid; everything he said was so stupid. Would is fucking kill him to see it from my perspective? He’s not the only one trying to survive.  _

Keith soon stopped and took a deep breath, looking around, realizing he wasn’t paying any mind to his surroundings. 

Then is struck him.

_ Wait…where am I…SHIT...FUCK THIS! FUCK YOU LANCE! _

_____________

Lance let out a low frustrated growl and began pacing back and forth.

“Come on Lance, calm down. He already left, you don’t have to worry about that human anymore,” Pidge squeaked while pacing with Lance.

Hunk soon came back and was a bit confused at what was happening.  _ “Uhh did I miss something? Where did Keith go?” _ the cub looked around and then back at Lance.

“Ughh! I never want to hear his dumb name again. He’s the reason why I’m like this! Did you see that Pidge?! I saved his life, and all I get is a literal ‘fuck you’ from him.” Lance groaned and stopped pacing around.

Pidge and Hunk stayed quiet, patiently waiting for Lance to calm down.

Lance soon let out a heavy sigh and crouched down in front of the others, and began petting their heads. “Humans are idiots…I am glad we can all agree on that,” he mumbled. He continued to stay quiet and looked up at the sky, the sun was going to set soon. The wolves would start coming out.

Letting out a low groan, Lance placed his hands on his face and squished his cheeks in frustration, “I can’t believe I am going to say this. Pidge make sure that idiot gets out of here. We are close to the mountain base and you know how the wolves are.”

Pidge blinked a bit and nodded slowly,  “Okay, I’ll go follow him. I’ll make sure he doesn’t see me either.”

Lance nodded slowly, “Thank you for putting up with me Pidge. Be safe, okay? You know the relationship between the wolves and I,” Lance gritted his teeth a bit in thought.

 

_ “Be careful Pidge! I know you have been practicing in hiding but please, be careful, and come back safely, okay?” _ Hunk rubbed his head against the foxes in worry.

 

Pidge nodded again and soon darted off into the same direction that Keith was going in.

Lance scooped Hunk up in his arms and began to rub his belly, “This is what happens when you let someone in,” he mumbled. “I shouldn’t have listened to Shiro, I am not him…” Lance frowned.

 

Hunk placed a paw on the others cheek,  _ “Lance, of course you aren’t Shiro. You are your own person, and you do things your way. You don’t have to live up to Shiro’s ways. But sometimes change is good, even if it is something small, like letting someone in. You were able to talk to someone that is mostly related to you physically. You can’t always rely on us. Yeah, we will always be here for you, but sometimes strangers can show you things that we can’t. Maybe Keith can open your eyes to...something, and vice versa. Remember, he is scared and confused, he almost died today, and he wakes up to someone that can talk to animals and that can heal him. Now tell me Lance, doesn’t that sound crazy to outsiders?” _

 

Lance blinked a bit at what Hunk said. Completely awestruck, Lance sat down and placed Hunk in his lap, continuing to pet him, deep in thought. After a few more minutes of silence, he let out a chuckle and buried his face into Hunks back, and breathed in the earthy smell in his fur. “Hunk, why are you so wise for a creature that is so young? No wonder Allura likes you so much,” he paused a bit. “Thank you, Hunk, you always help me in these kinds of situations. It is really hard to open up to others after everything that has happened. I got really fucked up when I was growing up and these are the repercussions of it. I really do admire Shiro and everything that he has done for this forest. I just kind of shut down when I know I am going to fail.”

 

_ “But that is part of growing Lance. Failing is what helps us become better in life and make sure we don’t make that mistake again. I believe in you Lance, you are head strong, stubborn, brave, and most of all, very kind.” _

 

Lance smiles into the cubs fur and squeezes him a bit before letting out a heavy sigh. “I know. Sometimes I wish Shiro was still here to make things right again, but I know I need to face reality sooner or later,” Lance said. Letting go of the cub he laid down on the ground and stared at pink and orange sky.

Hunk looked over at Lance and sat down next to him, and pressed his wet nose against the other's cheek.  _ “Maybe Keith will come back and give you a second chance at explaining. There is a lot you need to tell him about you and the forest.” _

He looked over at the cub and wrapped his arms around his belly and rolled with Hunk on the ground. “Stop being so serious Hunk,” Lance mumbled and hid his face in the back of the cub’s neck. “I just want everything to go back to normal.”

___________

Keith continued to get even more lost than he already was to begin with. 

With all the walking and confusion, he was able to cool down from his little tantrum. Stopping in his tracks, he looked around at the area, and finally gave up. “I am definitely lost,” Keith let out a frustrated groan. His pride was too much for this bullshit.

He continued to walk around in the forest trying to find his way back, looking for any small clue he was going in some kind of right direction. Doesn’t moss grow on the north side of trees? Or was it the south? Shit. Was that even a real thing?

The sun was setting rather quickly, and Keith knew he didn’t want to stay the night here with no equipment.

Minutes passed by and Keith was still having no luck. Running a hand through his hair, he heard some rustling. Holding his breath, he looked around quickly, trying to find the source of the noise.  _ Fuck. I am so dead out here. _

The rustling continued to grow louder and more frequent than before, but it sounded as if it was coming from all around him.

Keith was absolutely terrified at this point, not knowing what was hiding. Was this some sort of karma? Did Lance curse him or something? Forest-deity-fuck-you-curse?

Soon the rustling stopped, and Keith was able to catch his breath. He noticed something moving in his peripheral vision, something...orange. Orange? A fox? Was it Pidge? 

“Pidge is that you? Did Lance send you to stalk me? To make sure I leave ‘his’ forest?”

The fox didn’t reply or show itself. Keith let out a huff and continued to walk away. He was able to make some progress on his adventure back to the hunting cabin.

Again, more rustling was coming from behind him. Letting out a heavy sigh, “Pidge stop following me!” he gritted his teeth and turned around. That was the first mistake. It wasn’t the fox that was following him this time. Keith probably wandered a bit too close to the mountain base as he was warned multiple times not to go near that area.

 

Wolves.

 

Keith held his breath and stared at around 5 wolves staring right back at him. One of them stepped forward and began to growl, probably the pack leader. Every step forward the wolf took, one step back Keith took. He held the wolves eyes with his own, trying not to shake in fear. HE could feel the blood pulsing in his ears, his heart pounding.

All the wolves bared their teeth at him and began to circle around Keith so he couldn’t escape. Keith knew he wasn’t healed up all the way, if he ran away the wolves would catch up to him. If he stood still the wolves will get him. There was no win in this situation, but running away gave him that extra 2% of surviving. Where did he even get 2%? Okay, not the time to get mathematical. 

So survival rate from this situation stood at 2%. Keith liked those odds and he wasn’t going to give up so easily either.

 

Glancing back at his surroundings, he had to take the chance at least. Fuck it, right? What did he even have to lose at this point? 

 

Swallowing hard, he broke out into a run. His adrenaline was pumping. Fight or flight, right?

It wasn’t till a few steps in that he felt his legs sting in pain every time he took a step, but he couldn’t stop now.

He could hear the wolves running after him, branches and leaves crunching under them as they gained on him, their growling growing louder and louder. Keith knew that they were easily catching up on him. He could feel his eyes water up and his lungs burning. 

 

_ No, not like this, please. _

 

Still running, he knew he didn’t have much in him to outrun the wolves. He was just entertainment for them now. He didn’t want to die, not yet. 

Keith didn’t look where he was running, and his foot got caught on some root that had been uprooted. He was able to put his hands out before his body met with the rocky ground. 

 

Quickly he turned over on his back and began crawling backwards, trying to get away from the wolves. They all stopped in front of him and continued to growl, excitement in their eyes with their prey laid out before them. Hungry snarls and sharp teeth greet Keiths eyes, and he knew he was done for. 

The pack leader stepped forward and began opening his mouth. The leader was getting ready to attack Keith, he knew it. “This is it.” was all Keith could think of. When the wolf took its first step, he squeezed his eyes shut quickly, and covered his face with his arms, waiting for his demise.

Seconds ticked by, feeling like hours, but suddenly there was a loud crash. 

 

Keith was hesitant to put his arms down to see what was going on. Were they teasing him?

 

“He is mine!” voice shouted out.

 

Keith widened his eyes and put his arms down, and saw Lance wrestling with the wolf.

Lance had his back on the floor and had his legs wrapped around the wolves hind legs. One of his hands was on the outer part of the wolf’s jaw, while his other arm was covered in blood, and Keith spotted the wolf’s teeth were in his arm.

Keith was terrified at what he was witnessing in front of him. Blood spilling all across the forest floor, painting the dirt a bright crimson. It was only Lance’s blood.

Lance head-butted the wolf’s nose, which made the creature whine and release Lance's arm. With that brief advantage, Lance wrapped his arms around the animal's neck and turned them over, Lance gaining momentum being on top.

 

Lance wrapped a hand around the wolf’s snout, violently shutting its snarling mouth. Then, placing his other arm on the wolf’s neck, he began pushing down on it.

“Give up, or the contract will be nullified,” Lance growled while biting the back of the wolf’s neck.

 

The wolf let out a muffled grow,l and with that Lance let go and got up from the ground. He walked over to the other wolves, and they began to take a few steps back as they lowered their heads, submitting to Lance as he overtook their leader.

“You guys have wandered far from your area. If I remember the contract correctly, it stated that any humans in my area, you were not to touch or harm. Look, if you guys don’t want me to protect your pack, then you should have said so,” Lance shrugged, wincing at his wounds briefly, before composing himself. The pack leader joined the rest, Lance’s harsh gaze never leaving their eyes.

 

The leader let out a low growl and began shaking his head a bit. Looking back, he growled again at the other wolves, and with that the four other wolves of the pack turned around and ran off in pitiful defeat.

“Listen, I know what you guys have been doing behind my back, which is against the contract. If you don’t want me to watch over your pack, then it’ll be easier on my part. One less pack to worry about,” Lance looked down at the alpha wolf.

 

The wolf let out a low growl and lowered his head.

 

“Good, just as I thought. Now, you see that human over there?” he paused and pointed at Keith. 

 

“That human is mine, if you hurt him in any way, the contract is done.”

 

The wolf stayed quiet and glared at Keith, and soon nodded, running off in the same direction as the other wolves.

Lance stayed quiet for a few seconds, and let out a heavy sigh, placing his hand over his bloody arm. He looked back and slowly walked over to Keith. 

“Keith, you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked while crouching down in front of the other.

Keith was still a bit lost for words after what just happened before his eyes. He didn’t even look Lance in the eyes, and just stared at his injured arm, covered in dirt and blood. What is going on? Is this really real life right now? 

 

He could feel his hands shaking uncontrollably, as his mind trying it’s hardest to process everything. Keith truly felt terrified right now, like he couldn’t control anything in his life. He felt control behind a gun. Hunting. His control. He could pull a trigger, and know the outcome. This was beyond anything he could ever begin to understand. He was not used to not being in control.

He started forward, and  placed his hand gently on Lance’s wounded arm, pulling it close to him. Looking at the deep dark crimson holes that covered his arm, his brows furrowed in deep concern. 

 

“Keith…Keith?”

 

Keith felt a callous but soft hand touch his cheek; it felt warm and rather familiar. He looked up at the cerulean eyes that were staring back at him. A rush of warmth went to his cheeks and tips of his ears. Opening his mouth a bit, he still couldn’t form his words.

“Keith, did you hit your head?” Lance was getting worried that the other wasn’t responding.

Shaking his head a bit, “No…I’m okay,” he mumbled. “Sorry, I am just trying to understand why all of this is happening.” Lance’s arm was warm under his touch. 

Lance let out a sigh and sat down in front of Keith. “Keith” he said the others name with a low tone. “I’ll help you get out of here, okay? So just relax and I’ll explain everything on the way.”

 

Keith lowered his eyes and stared at the others arm again, “But what about your arm, Lance? You’re bleeding everywhere...” Keith said with a bit of panic in his voice. “Let me help you, please,” he added quietly.

 

Lance gave a small smile, “Don’t worry, it’ll heal up in a few hours. I have had worse wounds than this before.”

 

Keith bit his lower lip and placed his hand back on the others crimson covered arm. He thought to himself a bit and quickly took his shirt off, and began covering Lance’s arm with it, to at least make the bleeding stop. He wasn’t the best at this whole stranded in the forest survival thing, but he knows a thing or two. 

 

Lance was caught a bit off guard by this, and stayed quiet until Keith was done. As the other was wrapping his arm in his shirt, he glanced over hesitantly at Keith. Looking him over a few times, he noticed a few scars on his arm and waist. His body was even paler under the shirt. Keith was rather lean, which surprised Lance a bit; he just thought Keith was some skinny ass punk. Lance felt his cheeks warm up a bit, it was a rather strange feeling for him and he didn’t know if he liked it or not. Nope, not dealing with that today. No sir, no way. 

 

“There, that will stop the bleeding at least,” Keith stared back at Lance.

 

“Thank you,” Lance smiled at the other and slowly got back up on his feet. With his unharmed arm, he extended out towards Keith.

Keith grabbed his hand and pulled himself up back onto his feet. “So you’ll show me the way back?” he asked while letting go of Lance's hand reluctantly.

Lance nodded his head a bit, “Yeah, just follow me and stay close, okay?” 

With that, Lance began walking, and looked back every so often to make sure Keith was close to him. Lance stayed quiet for a bit, and it was definitely a little awkward between the two of them. 

He thought about what Hunk told him, and bit his lower lip slightly. 

 

Slowing down his pace to make sure Keith was next to him, he took in a deep breath, “Keith, I just want to say that I am sorry. I tend to forget that you humans live differently than I do. That the things I do are probably considered...unnatural,” he paused a bit. “Look, I do want what is best for this forest, and if you want, I can teach you how I live, teach you how the forest lives, all of it’s inhabitants, and how everything is connected.” Lances swallowed his pride, and added, “And...I guess I can learn a few things from you, too.”

 

Keith blinked a bit and looked up at Lance. He understood what the other was saying, and frowned a bit at the thought of how he acted towards Lance. 

“I’m sorry too, I should have been grateful for you saving my life…now 2 times today. It’s just a lot to process, you know? I mean, I’m still pretty shaken up after what just happened,” Keith said. Closing his eyes, he remembered how the blood was splattering everywhere when Lance was fighting the wolf. He cringed a bit and shook his head, then looked back at Lance. Just looking at the other gave him a sense of relief and comfort. He didn’t want to admit it, but he did want to see Lance again. “I guess I could come back every so often and see what you have to show me,” he started. “I just need a few days to think everything over and relax,” he said while rubbing the back of his neck.

“Of course, I understand. Take your time, and whenever you want you can come back to the forest.”

 

“When I do come back, how will I find you?”

 

Lance let out a soft chuckle and gave Keith a soft smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll know when you come back.”

 

Keith stiffened and felt his cheeks heat up again, and quickly looked forward. “O-okay,” Keith replied back.

 

They both stayed quiet for the rest of the time on their venture back to the Hunting Cabin. Soon, Lance stopped and looked over at Keith, “If you take this path straight, you will arrive to the building in a few minutes. I can’t go any further than this, and I don’t want other humans to see us together,” he said.

Keith looked at the path and let out a sigh of relief, everything looked familiar to him. 

Turning to Lance, he gave a fraction of a smile. “Thank you for helping me get back, and saving my life,” he said nervously.

Lance glanced around and hesitantly took a step forward, slowly placing his forehead on the others and smiled again. Keith was flustered at the gesture, but remained frozen in place. 

Lance finally took a step back and looked down at Keith. 

“You are welcome. I’ll...see you in a few days I guess?” he tilted his head and arched an eyebrow in question. 

Keith nodded, “Yeah, in a few days,” he repeated. He soon turned around and began walking on the familiar path back to the cabin. He could feel Lance watching him walk away. 

 

Swallowing hard, Keith slowly placed his fingertips on his forehead, and a faint shade of pink dusted his cheeks. It was weird, but the gesture felt rather nice and comforting. Maybe it’s how he says goodbye or something? Some kind of forest deity thing? He wasn’t going to look too far into it.

 

Within a few minutes, Keith saw the cabin come into view and let out a heavy sigh of relief that he was finally getting out of here. Thankfully, there was hardly anyone in the cabin as he walked through the building with ease, without anyone questioning why he didn’t have a shirt on. 

 

Making his way to his car, thankfully he still had his car keys in his pants pocket after the whole ordeal. Truly some kind of miracle. 

He opened the car door and sat in the driver seat and quickly shut the door. Slouching in his chair, he placed his hands on the wheel and just stared outside.  _ I want to come back. I want to see him again. I want to know more about him. _

His thoughts were all over the place, and with that he slammed his head on the steering wheel and groaned loudly. 

 

What was he getting himself into?


	3. Guillotine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for being so late QAQ  
> still need a beta /cries  
> Song: Guillotine  
> By: Jon Bellion

Days had passed by rather slowly ever since the incident. Keith was pretty sure for the first few days that everything was a dream. Before he went to sleep, he would remember everything that happened that day. 

Unfortunately, Keith would also dwell on these memories during work as well. Thankfully, Keith still had his second job, because he knew he wasn’t going to hunt anymore.

“Keith?” a feminine voice sounded.

Keith snapped out of his day dreaming, looking around he realized he was in the kitchen of the café that he worked at. Shaking his head, he glanced over at his coworker and gave a rather forced smile.

“Sorry, I was just spacing out,” he said.

The girl crossed her arms, not giving into the weak excuse the he gave to her. 

“Come on, Keith, you’ve been spacing out these past few days. Did the manager give you too many hours? I know you're not hunting anymore, but is it REALLY affecting you that much?” she questioned, hastily grabbing a coffee cup for the next customer.

Keith huffed in exasperation. “No, the hours are fine. I need to work more to catch up on money. Rent is coming up soon,” he paused and looked down at the pastries that were in front of him. “Melanie, I promise you that I’m fine, okay? I’m just...thinking some things out.”

Melanie squinted her eyes at Keith as she got a bag of coffee beans out. 

“Fine, if you say so,” she said.

She gave a pause, before shifting her eyes to a suggestive glance at Keith.  

“Has someone been keeping you up at night?” she wiggled her eyebrows, and gave Keith a wide smile.

Thinking that the conversation was over, Keith was desperately trying to finish up the pastries by putting strawberries on the little cakes. But hearing that wild assumption his coworker gave made him blush rather quickly, and he tried to hide his face by suddenly smashing it into the cake.

“KEITH!” she shrieked as little pieces of frosting went everywhere. 

“What the hell! You made a mess! You are SO lucky the manager isn’t here to see this,” she sighed, letting out a chuckle. 

“But was I right? Who are they? What is their name? Where did you guys meet?”

Standing back up straight, Keith’s face was covered in bits and pieces frosting, which made taking him seriously a little bit harder than planned. 

He let out a groan and grabbed the towel that was over his shoulder. 

“Melanie could you not? We are working right now. I’m not going to tell you anything about my personal life, especially after what happened last time.”

“Oh come on Keith, I had to tell someone.”

“You didn’t have to tell a random customer!” he let out a groan while whipping his frosted face with the towel.

She rolled her eyes, and soon finished making the cup of coffee.

“They don’t even know who you are. You always stay in the kitchen making the pastries, nobody sees your face.” She said, while placing the coffee cup on a saucer. She grabbed another plate and placed a lemon cake that Keith had finished this morning onto the plate. 

“Also, your lemon cakes are a big hit this week. You should probably make more. I don’t think they’re going to last much longer!” she said while getting ready to head out of the kitchen.

“My shift ends in a few hours,” he said, hastily cleaning his work counter and grabbing another strawberry cake, carefully placing a strawberry on the top of it. 

“There is a reason I came into work hours before we opened. Besides, there are more lemon cakes, just ask the manager to get them for you. Once I’m done with these strawberry cakes and scones that are still baking, I’ll head out,” he said while concentrating on decorating the cakes.

“Booooooo!” Melanie echoed as she pushed the door with her back and left the kitchen.

Keith shook his head and smiled a bit as he continued to decorate the little cakes. Thankfully, the next few hours passed by rather quickly for him. He hung up his apron on the wall and washed his hands. Grabbing his jacket, he exited the kitchen to the main floor of the café. “Melanie, I’m heading out now. All the pastries are done,” he called back while putting on his jacket.

Melanie was currently at a table, but heard Keith; she excused herself from her customers and walked over to Keith. “I guess I’ll see you the shift day then, I heard you don’t work tomorrow,” she said, frantically fixing her messy bun.

Giving a slight nod, Keith almost sighed in relief.  “Yup, I’m about to hit my hours this week, so I have the day off tomorrow.”

“Are you going to see your boo-thang?” she giggled. She finally managed to put her wavy blonde hair back in her messy bun, and elbowed Keith in the arm playfully.

Keith brought his collar up on his jacket and tried to hide his face, “Melanie, leave me alone,” he grumbled.

Melanie giggled again and patted his back, “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

“Sure it is,” he rolled his eyes, “Good luck with work,” he said as he exited the building.  Honestly, he couldn’t catch a break with her. If only she knew every little detail of what was really going on. 

The cool breeze graced him, which felt rather nice and relaxing after being stuck in a hot kitchen with pastries all day.

Sticking his hand in his jacket pocket, Keith grabbed his key and went to the door next to the café. The perk of working at the café was that the manager had an empty apartment above the store, and graciously Keith stay there for the time being. Living on top of your job was probably the best thing ever.

Walking over to the plain door, he unlocked it and walked inside. Soon closing it and locking it, he went up a flight of stairs and met himself with another door. Opening up the second door, he made it into “his” apartment. 

It was nothing special, but it was more than he needed, and he was grateful for that. It was a one bedroom apartment; with a kitchen that opened up into the living room. The bedroom was rather nice, and luckily he had a rather large bathroom. The place was already furnished with his manager's’ excess furniture. The rent was out of his price point, but his manager lowered it for him since he was also working in the café.

Keith grabbed a small bag and placed some essentials in it, shit like water, food, and his prized dagger. 

This dagger was rather special to him; his previous foster father gave it to him when he passed down the gun to him.

He quickly finished getting ready, and grabbed his car keys so he could head back out to the forest. He felt rather excited to go back and see Lance. 

He shook his head at the last part, and bit his lower lip. 

_ Nope. I just met the guy, just calm down Keith. Lance? Who cares about that weird mystic forest spirit...dude...thing. I’m just going to learn magic shit from the forest and stuff... _

He kept telling himself that, anyways.  

Brushing off any excitement, he left his apartment and began walking to his car.

__________

Keith soon arrived to the Hunting Cabin and felt a bit nervous for some reason, this was the first time he was going into this forest without the mindset of killing. Grabbing his bag, he pulled it over his shoulder and took a deep breath before walking into the cabin.

As he walked in Keith realized that Lance still had his wallet and he began to feel uneasy. Walking up to the desk, Keith began to stiffen up not knowing if they will let him by. Thankfully there was a familiar lady at the desk; Keith flashed a smile at her.

“Morning Keith,” she said while filing some papers.

“Morning, I ummm forgot my ID at home. I’m not hunting today, just want to relax for a few hours before work,” he said hoping the lady took the bait.

“Don’t worry about that sweetie, you are a regular just don’t forget next time okay. Also be safe out there,” she said while waving at him.

Keith gave a quick nod and soon scurried off past the back door and into the forest. Straightening himself out he took a deep breath and looked around. _Now to just get horribly lost and hopefully find Lance._ Keith thought as he started his quest on trying to find Lance.

At least it was a peaceful and cool day, Fall was in full swing now and it felt really nice to just walk around. Keith never really admired the forest until now, since he usually just ignored it.

Keith took his usual route as if he was hunting and ended up at the stream that he met Hunk and Pidge at. He began walking in the direction when he was chasing after the two of them. After a few minutes he came to the slope where he tripped and thought it was the end. He began sliding down the slope until the ground evened out. Letting out a sigh, he zipped up his jacket and continued walking.

After a few minutes Keith stopped to take a quick break. Opening his bag he took out his water bottle and began taking a sip. As he was enjoying his drink he felt water splatter all over him. He confused at all the water but soon realized the water bottle wasn’t in his hand anymore. Freaking out Keith fell back onto the ground and looked around quickly. Looking up he saw that his water bottle was stuck to a nearby tree, with an arrow in it. AN ARROW! Keith began backing up against the tree and held onto his bag tightly. Putting his hand in his hand in the bag and trying to grab his dagger.

“Nailed it!” a voice shouted out.

Keith blinked a bit, the voice sounded rather familiar. He still held onto his dagger tightly just in case he had to pull it out.

The bushes began rustling and Keith was biting his lip rather hard. Soon emerged a man from behind the trees. “Keith! Told you I would find you!” Lance smiled while holding onto his bow.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Keith let go of his dagger and took his hand out of his bag. “What the hell Lance! That could have hit me!” he grumbled while standing up and brushing off the dirt and leaves from his pants.

“But I didn’t” Lance winked and went over to the arrow stuck in the tree and pulled it out, letting the water bottle drop to the floor. “Told you my accuracy was impeccable,” Lance said while looking down at Pidge and Hunk who were now at his side.

Hunk grabbed the water bottle with his paws and went over to Keith and lifted up the bottle to him.

Keith smiled at the small cub and leaned down to pick up the water bottle, “Thank you Hunk,” he said while petting the cub. “At least one of you three is nice and thoughtful,” Keith huffed while looking straight at Lance.

Lance placed a hand on his hip, “What? Me?” he said in a tone as if he was offended. “I am the nicest and most thoughtful person you will ever meet in your life,” he added on.

Pidge soon started jumping up and down and squeaking at Lance. Then the fox ran over to the deity and nipped at his toes.

“I know Pidge, don’t worry we won’t be late for it,” Lance said. “Keith do you want to come with Pidge and I?” he asked.

Keith tilted his head a bit and shrugged a bit, “I mean, I guess. I did come here to hang out with you,” he replied back while walking over to Lance.

Lance nodded with a slight smile, adjusting his bow and arrows, he leaned down to pick Hunk up in his arms. “First we will drop Hunk off at the cave and then we can go to your training, okay Pidge?” he said as he began to walk in the direction of the cave.

Keith walked next to Lance and watched Pidge lead the way back to the cave. Keith was surprised that he wasn’t far off to where they were, getting completely lost did help in some way but he should probably learn the way soon.

Once they reached the open area of grass Lance placed the cub back down on the ground. “Hunk, we will be back in a few hours like usual, okay?” he said while petting the cub.

Hunk nodded and pressed his snout against Pidge’s forehead. He soon began to waddle off back to the cave.

“Okay now we can start our adventure to take Pidge to the other foxes,” Lance smiled while turning around.

Pidge let out a squeak and was already ahead from Lance and Keith.

As they were following Pidge, Keith looked over at Lance, “So where exactly are we going? You said something about training for Pidge?” he asked a bit confused.

Lance nodded without looking at the other. “As you can tell Pidge isn’t really that well at being sneaky or other things that foxes are naturally good at. That is because Pidge hasn’t been surrounded by their kind for a while now, I tried to teach them some things but I’m not a fox,” he paused. “So once a week I take Pidge to a group of foxes nearby here and they teach them and stuff like that,” he gave a small smile. “Ill tell you the rest later on…you probably have more questions on how Pidge got into this situation and isn’t with their own pack,” Lance said while glancing at Keith.

Keith swallowed hard because Lance was right about the more questions. He was still confused about everything, but that was why he was here, to learn from Lance.

With that they walked in silence for a few more minutes until they were greeted with a small pack of foxes. Pidge excitedly ran over to them and greeted them.

“Come sit down here,” Lance voiced as he sat down on a fallen tree.

Keith obliged and sat down next to Lance and waited to hear the rest of the story.

Taking in a deep breath Lance got comfortable as he watched Pidge interact with the other foxes. “Pidge was separated from their family at a very young age. Pidge and their brother were captured by hunters for their fur and meat. Thankfully they were both able to escape the hunters but they had been tainted by the human's scent and because of that their mother didn’t want them anymore. So Pidge and their brother began wandering around the forest trying to survive at such a young age,” Lance paused and frowned. “Since they were still weak they were picked off again by hunters. Pidge’s brother made sure that Pidge was going to be safe and unharmed. The hunter captured their brother and Pidge ran as fast as he could to get away and to not see their brother get killed. I found Pidge a few days after that incident and I wish….” He paused again and curled his hands into fists, “I wish I could have gotten to them sooner…than their brother wouldn’t be dead. Ever since then Pidge has been with me ever since they were a baby and never really learned what foxes were supposed to do. I feel bad for Pidge though, unlike Hunk I wasn’t able to give a proper burial ceremony for their brother,” Lance let out a heavy sigh. Slouching over he ran his hands through his hair, his hands were shaking and his breathing was audible.

Keith placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder and frowned, “I’m sorry that all of that happened…but in the end at least you found Pidge and you are able to protect them,” he said.

Lance nodded and straightened himself back up. “You are right, I just can’t stop thinking about the past and what I could have done or changed if I was there,” he replied while looking at Keith.

Keith stayed quiet for a bit and watched Pidge running around with the other foxes. “So where is the mother? Will their mother never take them back?” he asked.

Lance shrugged his shoulders quickly; “Foxes tend to move around if something dramatic happens, losing your own offspring’s is rather scary for them. She might have relocated to another part of the forest, either way I think it is best like this, it’s not her fault she wanted to give them up, that is just how life is.”

Keith nodded a bit at the response and looked down at the ground. Thinking to himself he bit his lower lip and let the words flow out from his mouth, “So what happened to Hunk? And what is a proper burial ceremony?” he asked with a slight tilt with his head.

Lance glanced over at Keith and let out a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck he straightened himself a bit, “I found Hunk when a hunter killed his mother. I was just doing my rounds around the forest when I heard a gunshot near by. Heading towards the noise I came across a hunter, a baby cub, and a dead bear. The hunter was already taking Hunk’s mom away, and I just couldn’t let that happen,” Lance paused. “You know, I had to do what I had to do. I killed the hunter and brought Hunk’s mom back to him. I buried his mother and did the burial ceremony for Hunk. Deity’s do a burial ceremony to put the animal at ease and let their soul roam the forest. Unfortunately due to the mining many years ago I can’t complete the ceremony because I couldn’t bury his mother with a Balmera crystal,” he gritted his teeth and looked away.

Keith could feel that Lance was getting angry, “Sorry if I asked a lot of questions, I just wanted to know,” he replied. He placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder to try and calm him down.

The other let out a stifled sigh and slowly looked back at Keith, “It’s fine, its good that you are asking questions, you are learning. It is just hard talking about some things.”

“Okay, last question. I heard about Balmera crystals when I was younger but I never really knew anything about them.”

“Balmera crystals are what keep this forest alive and thriving. We use these crystals for many purposes but always return them back to the earth,” Lance reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a necklace with a Balmera crystal tied onto it. “Shiro passed this down to me, this was the last crystal he could find. Whenever he did a burial ceremony it was always incomplete since all the crystals had been dug up by the humans,” he tied the necklace around his neck and looked at Keith. “It also stressed me greatly whenever I do the ceremony and can’t complete it. Thankfully the animals are understanding on why the ceremonies can’t be completed for the time being.”

“But the forest is still thriving, there still might be crystals somewhere around here. I mean I don’t know I am just guessing here,” Keith said.

Lance shrugged his shoulders, “I keep looking everywhere for more Balmera crystals but still no luck. Hopefully you are right and I can find some soon,” he replied back. Lance soon stood up and stretched, “Welp, let's go find Pidge and head back to the cave. It's still early so once I drop Pidge off, I can show you around more.”

Keith stood up as well and brushed off some of the dirt with his hands. “Yeah that sounds good.”

Lance and Keith walked side by side until they came across the group of foxes. “Come on Pidge, time to head back,” Lance shouted and waved Pidge over.

Pidge nodded and squeaked at the other foxes before running back over to the others. The fox looked up at Lance and squeaked at him.

“Yes I did see how much you are growing,” Lance smiles down at Pidge. “Hopefully with a few more lessons from them you won’t need to come back.”

Pidge jumped in excitement from the positive remarks from Lance and began to lead the way back to the cave.

Keith stayed close to Lance and kept glancing at him every so often. He couldn’t deny it but Lance did look rather…hot? Keith blushed madly at the thought and looked away quickly, but not quick enough to get smacked in the face by a branch. “Fuck!” he shouted and placed a hand over his nose.

Lance looked back at Keith and chuckled a bit, “You sure do like running into things, huh?” he said while grabbing Keiths hand and removing it from his face. “Don’t worry you aren’t bleeding or anything, just a little scratch,” he said while looking at Keith.

Keith tried to avert his eyes from Lance,  _ too close,  _ was all Keith could think of in that moment. He could feel the others breath on him, his warm hand on his. He quickly took his hand back and placed it back on his nose, “I’m fine, stop looking at it,” he groaned while walking past Lance and following Pidge.

Lance blinked a bit and soon caught up to Keith, “Just making sure you were all right, no need to get feisty.”

Keith rolled his eyes at what the other said, “I don’t get ‘feisty’, I just don’t need you to worry about me.”

“Mhmmmm…” Lance cocked an eyebrow and continued to walk by the other.

After awhile they reach back to the cave and Hunk was already waiting for them. Pidge ran up to him and tackled him to the ground. Lance chuckled a bit at the cub and fox playing around. Keith smiled as well and looked over at Lance, “So…what do you usually do here? Like what is a day in your…shoes?” Keith questioned the last part, as he has never seen Lance wear shoes.

Lance heard what Keith said and looked back at him as he held Hunk in his arms. “Hmmmm…well I don’t really do much until something happens really. Sometimes I walk around the forest to make sure everything is peaceful, other than that I usually just hang out with these cuties,” he paused while hugging the cub a bit tighter. “Today is kind of a chill day though, Pidge and I were going to jump off the cliff here and swim a bit.”

Keith raised an eyebrow and just stared at the other, “jump off that cliff?” he pointed towards the waterfall.

“Yup!”

“You are straight up crazy!”

“Awww you are worried for me~ don’t worry though I have done this tons of times before,” he grinned while taking a step towards Keith.

Keith stiffened up a bit when he saw the other approaching him. “I’m not worried about you! I’m just stating that you are crazy,” he said while crossing his arms.

Lance rolled his eyes and grabs Keith’s wrist and pulls him, “Come on you will see it isn’t THAT scary,” he chuckled. “Come on Pidge!” Lance shouted and watched as the fox ran over to them. “Hunk you will be watch and see who has the best splash range!”

The cub looked over at the other and nodded. Hunk went over to the edge of the body of water and made himself comfortable sitting in the shallow part of it.

Keith was growing rather hesitant on what they were about to do. Jumping off the side of a waterfall? Letting out a low groan Keith yanked back his arm from the other and began taking his shirt and shoes off. “Fine! I’ll join your crazy games,” he gave in.

Lance smiled at what the other said, “I promise you it’ll be tons of fun.”

Keith became a bit flustered by seeing the others smile and looked stubbornly away as he walked past the other. “Come on crazy, lead the way.”

Lance and Pidge soon began leading the way up the side of the mountain. They kept quiet until they finally reached the top. Keith slowly and nervously looked over the edge of the waterfall and decided right there and then, that Lance was crazy, and that he was going to die today. Walking away from the edge he looked over at Lance and Pidge who were getting ready to jump.

“So this is how it's going to go,” Lance paused for a bit. “Pidge will jump first and once they are out of the way, I will go next and then it’ll be your turn Keith,” he said the last part while looking at the other.

Keith raised an eyebrow at what Lance said, “So you think I’m going to jump on my own free will?”

Lance took a step closer to Keith and grinned, “I don’t think, I know you will jump.”

The other could feel his heart racing when the deity approached him. Trying to calm himself down he looked away from the other and took a deep breath, “We will see about that.”

Lance continued to grin and soon walked away and over to Pidge, “Okay Pidge you are up first!”

Pidge nodded and went back a bit to have a running start. The fox soon darted off and ran right off the side of the mountain and dived into the water.

Keith looked over the side of the waterfall to see where Pidge went and was relived to see the little fox pop their head up from under the water. He continued to stay at the edge and glanced back at Lance, “your turn crazy,” he chuckled.

Lance just rolled his eyes, “watch and learn from the best, cause I bet you won’t be able to beat me” he said teasingly trying to provoke the other. Lance took a few steps back, starting a little bit farther from where Pidge started.

Keith let out a huff trying to not let Lance’s words get to his head. He just kept staring out over the edge and waited for Lance to jump.

Lance gave a slight smirk when the other wasn’t looking at him. Humans are so much fun to mess around with. The deity started running and had one intention in mind and that was getting Keith to jump with him. Yeah Keith would probably punch him but this mullet man needed to relax for once. When Lance was getting close enough to Keith he opened his arms and wrapped them quickly around the others waist and jumped off the side of the mountain with him in pure joy.

On the other hand Keith was completely caught off guard and was scared shitless at what was happening. All he could do was scream in pure terror that the water was getting closer and closer to them. Even though Keith was screaming he could hear one thing and that was Lance.

“Hold on tight and don’t let go of me.”

At that moment it felt like the world was slowing down. The fall didn’t seem as bad as he thought. But the one thing that felt nice were the arms tightly wrapped around his waist. He managed to wrap his arms around one of Lance’s arms and hold on tightly as he said. Soon the embrace of cold water hit them and Keith struggled to have a hold on Lance and not to lose him, but Lance made sure they didn’t get separated when they landed. Keith opened his eyes to be greeted with Lance’s eyes and bright smile. Keith could feel his cheeks heat up even though they were still underwater. He could feel a tug on his arm from Lance and soon followed him back to the surface. Soon reaching the surface of the water Keith coughed up a bit and took a sharp inhale of air.

“I told you it was going to be fun,” Lance smiled still having his arms wrapped around Keiths waist and pulled him closer.

Keith bit the inside of his cheeks when he felt the others hands on his body; they felt so warm and nice. Keith soon snapped out of it and pushed the other away and rolled his eyes, “I could have died! You are insane Lance! I am fully capable of jumping on my own!”

Lance rolled eyes and began swimming around Keith, “stop complaining so much~ Just relax and have some fun. It’s like as if you have a stick up your ass, Mr. No Fun.”

Keith took offense to this, “I can have fun! I can have way more fun than you that’s for sure.”

“Those are some fighting words Keith,” Lance chuckled. The deity soon stopped swimming and splashed some water on the others face. “Just lighten up okay, I’m just trying to help you relax and enjoy what this place has to offer,” he said.

Keith gave a heavy sigh and glared at Lance, “Fine…I’ll try to ‘relax’ and ‘enjoy’,” he said mocking the other.

“There you go” Lance smiled and looked over at Pidge and Hunk who were watching them from the shallow part of the pond. “Come on you guys,” he said while swimming over to them. “Hunk I can hold you,” he added on while getting to the shallow part and held his hands out for the cub to swim to him. Pidge was already swimming back in the pond and was swimming towards Keith. Hunk was a bit hesitant since he leg hadn’t fully healed, but he let Lance hold him and swam back to where he left Keith.

“Is Hunk still injured?” Keith said still feeling guilty at what he has done.

“Hmmm? Oh ummm Hunk is almost completely healed actually, but because of the injury I don’t want him to strain his leg too much,” Lance said while holding the cub close to him.

Keith bit his bottom lip and placed a hand on the cubs head gently and began to pet him, “I’m sorry for shooting at you Hunk,” he said. It felt rather strange talking to an animal since he knew it wouldn’t respond back to him.

Hunk stared at Keith and lifted his head a bit and licked his palm.

“Don’t worry he already forgave you,” Lance said with a soft smile.

Pidge swam behind Keith and managed to climb onto his shoulder and laid there so they didn’t have to swim anymore.

“Pidge, I swear you are so lazy sometimes,” Lance rolled his eyes.

______

After an hour or so of swimming, eating and relaxing the sun began to draw to a close. Lance looked over at the setting sun and stretched a bit while sitting up from lying down on the ground. “It’s getting dark now…” he said and glanced at Keith who also sat up. Lance stood up and began gathering the blankets that he had gathered so the four of them could lay down comfortably. “Are gonna go back to your place? Do you need help finding the way back?” he asked while folding the blankets.

Keith sat up and began folding blankets as well and thought a bit to himself. “Ummm I was actually wondering if…I could…stay the night? I mean if you don’t have room then its okay!” he said a bit hesitant.

Lance blinked a bit at what Keith said, “You wanna stay out here? I’m impressed you want to sleep on a rock hard floor then a comfy bed,” he paused. “Or is it cause you can’t resist my charming looks and want to wake up next to me,” Lance smirked while getting closer to Keith.

Keith blushed lightly at the assumption Lance made and shook his head. “I just don’t want to drive all the way back out here! It will be easier for me just to stay and I don’t have work tomorrow either,” he said.

“Fine, you can stay. But I warn you Hunk and Pidge are cuddlers!” Lance smiled while looking down at Hunk and Pidge who were waiting for them to go back to the cave.

It only took a few more minutes for them to gather up the rest of the stuff and head back to the cave. Once they got inside the spacious cave, Keith put down his bag and the blankets. “Well…not to shabby. You sure do have a lot of camping material here,” he said as he noticed the numerous amounts of bags and other stuff.

“Hmm? Oh yeah…I usually take their stuff as well just in case they have anything I need,” he said. “Oh yeah!” Lance perked up and went over to a makeshift bed. There were just numerous blankets and pillows just in a pile. “Here you go!” Lance smiled while throwing something to Keith.

Keith fumbled a bit but soon caught what Lance threw at him, it was his wallet. “Thank you,” Keith smiled while opening it and making sure everything was there, he noticed that his license was a bit misplaced. Was Lance looking at his driver’s license? He shrugged it off and shoved the wallet in his bag.

“So as you can tell this is where we will be sleeping,” Lance gestured to the pile of blankets and smiled. Hunk and Pidge were already getting comfy into the pile. Lance went over to another pile of what Keith guessed was clothing.

Keith stiffened up and quickly turned away from Lance when he noticed the other was stripping. He took a deep breath and crouched down to his bag and took out a spare shirt. He quickly took off his shirt and pants and was about to put on his other shirt on until he felt a cold hand on his back. “What the hell Lance!” Keith flinched at the coldness and looked back at Lance who was wearing another pair of pants.

“I just noticed the scar on your back…” Lance tilted his head a bit and looked down at Keith. “Is it sensitive?” he asked.

Keith could feel his heart racing at how close Lance was to him and inspecting his body. “It’s nothing…I was just being stupid when I was younger,” Keith said without looking at the other and quickly put on the other shirt and walked away from Lance and went over to the pile of blankets. He sat down on one side of the makeshift bed and waited for Lance.

Lance was still a bit confused and followed Keith back to the bed as well and sat down next to him.

Hunk and Pidge made themselves comfy next to Lance and Keith and started falling asleep.

Keith let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes and grabbed another blanket and soon laid down and covered himself with the blanket. “Goodnight…” Keith said while facing away from the other. He could feel the other lay down as well and tried to calm down.

Lance soon laid down next to Keith and stared at the back of his head. “Hey Keith…” he whispered. “Do you ever get lonely?” Lance asked.

Keith was rather confused at the question the other said and glanced back at him. “Ummm maybe? I don’t know. I mean I have been living on my own for a while but I guess it never really affected me in that way. Why?”

“It’s nothing really,” Lance gave a quiet laugh and turned over so their backs were facing each other. “Goodnight Keith,” he said while letting out yawn and curling up into the blankets.

Lonely. Was Lance lonely? But he had Pidge and Hunk. Did Lance think that Keith was lonely? Keith tried to push the thoughts out of his head and tried to get some sleep. At least this makeshift bed of blankets is pretty soft.

 


End file.
